After the outbreak of the Liberation War, Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division became the vanguard, starting from Nanjing and heading north, successively capturing Huainan, Huai'an, Huaiyin, and Lianshui. Despite successive victories, the 74th Division also suffered certain casualties, and the Battle of Lianshui lost thousands of experienced combat veterans, which also weakened the strength of the 74th Division to a certain extent. Soon after, Zhang Lingfu was transferred by Gu Zhutong to fight in the Shandong battlefield, and his performance was still fierce, but the friendly forces could not keep up with the advance speed of the 74th Division, and Zhang Lingfu was very dissatisfied with this.
On May 6, 1947, the reorganized 74th Division was stationed in the Xiaobu area. Based on his long-term observation and experience, Zhang Lingfu wrote such a letter to old Jiang with a pen: "Since entering Shandong, every post has felt that the combat results have been satisfactory. Those who express the national army on the battlefield, the brave let them advance on their own, timidly listen to their feet, the victims sacrifice only, and the skillful people think that they have won. Rewards are difficult to understand, punishment is not appropriate, mutual existence is more wait-and-see, rare cooperation, each for their own sake, the same bed and different dreams. ”
Zhang Lingfu's letter broke through the shortcomings in the national army: "Rewards are difficult to understand, punishment is not appropriate; each is a conspiracy, the same bed and different dreams." But perhaps because the authorities were confused, or perhaps because they were unwilling to admit it, Lao Jiang disagreed with Zhang Lingfu's views and reprimanded him for "exaggeration." Shortly thereafter, Tang Enbo ordered Zhang Lingfu to attack Tanbu and let Huang Baitao and Li Tianxia cover the safety of the two wings of the 74th Division. The 74th Division was highly mechanized, so the marching speed was extremely fast, Huang Baitao wanted to keep up but could not keep up, and Li Tianxia deliberately did not keep up. As a result, the reorganized 74th Division became a prominent lone army, surrounded by Huaye at Menglianggu.
After Zhang Lingfu was surrounded, Lao Jiang urgently ordered hundreds of thousands of nationalist troops in Shandong to move closer to Meng Lianggu and relieve Zhang Lingfu. Of all the reinforcements, Huang Baitao and Li Tianxia were the closest to Meng Lianggu. Huang Baitao initially used all-out reinforcements, but Li Tianxia only sent a company, but pretended to be a brigade to fool Old Jiang. Later, under the repeated strict orders of Lao Jiang and Tang Enbo, only one regiment was sent. The other reinforcements, for the purpose of preserving their strength, walked slower than a snail until Zhang Lingfu's soldiers were defeated and killed, and they had not yet reached Meng Lianggu.
At this time, Old Jiang remembered the letter that Zhang Lingfu had written to himself ten days ago, and he thought that Zhang Lingfu was "overstated", but now he knows that what he said is not false. At a subsequent campaign review meeting, Old Chiang Kai-shek published Zhang Lingfu's letter and told the nationalist generals present that he had read the letter "spiritually stimulated infinitely, and he was particularly touched." He then asked Gu Zhutong to forward the letter to the commanders and division commanders for reflection, asking them to state their impressions and propose ways to improve it. For Li Tianxia, who performed extremely poorly in the Battle of Menglianggu, Lao Jiang only symbolically gave him a punishment and transferred him to the commander of the 37th Army. In the Battle of Menglianggu, Zhang Lingfu made a footnote of "the sacrifice of the victims only", but Li Tianxia became a model of "speculators who are self-reliant". Old Chiang Kai-shek handled it like this, how could the Nationalist army not be defeated!